


Triad

by voodoochild



Category: Kings
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-24
Updated: 2009-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-05 04:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voodoochild/pseuds/voodoochild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kingdoms rise and fall not by the actions of men, but the reactions of women. Spoilers for the finale, "The New King, Pt I & II".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Triad

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pouncer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pouncer/gifts).



Thomasina stood at the foot of Silas's throne and wondered, not for the first time, how that sharp-eyed, smooth-tongued soldier she'd met as a girl could have changed so much.

He was barely clinging to sanity, speaking to voices that weren't there, zealously pursuing a mere boy for supposedly "stealing" God's favor, and had cast down both of his families (legal and otherwise) without the slightest provocation. She could shake him, she really could - this person he was becoming was not the man she'd sworn her life to, all those years ago in a Gath border town.

Rose had come to her, for the first time in a long time, because she was the one who held the keys to the prison Jack was kept in. The Queen wanted to see her son, and came to Thomasina not as a ruler, not as a mother, but as a woman who'd been trampled over by Silas as much as Thomasina herself had. It had been worth the risk to see the hope shining in Jack's eyes once again, his mother vowing that she would get him out.

Thomasina is no fool; Rose and Jack are plotting treason, and they're not even being circumspect about it.

But then again, Rose Benjamin is no fool, either. She has seen the way Silas has elevated Helen, parading her as Consort and sullying the title that once held honor. She has seen how suspicious Silas has grown, and knows that Thomasina is the one person left she could have a hope in hell of swaying to her side. Rose remembers the old days, when she was still learning to manage Silas and there was only Thomasina to help her. Rose and Thomasina have kept a great many secrets together, and Rose knows well the affection Thomasina holds for Jack, who reminds them both, in different ways, of the king Silas once was and the king he never will be again.

She has read Thomasina well, and Thomasina cannot fault the Queen for it. So she agrees, she will facilitate meetings between the Queen and the imprisoned Prince, and Silas remains none the wiser - for how could Thomasina ever betray him?

The person neither of them reads well is Helen, who comes upon them one day meeting with Jack. She has come down to the prison to see the Prince - not for the first time, Thomasina has allowed her access twice before - and they discover she's already aware of the growing rebellion. She fears for her son, her Seth, whose disease has worsened, even under the care of the best doctors Silas can locate, and she knows well how precarious her position is. Over the months, she has seen what her beloved Silas is capable of.

If Silas is willing to wall his firstborn son up alive and keep him there as prisoner, what is he willing to do to a bastard who, in all likelihood, will never live to challenge him for the throne anyway?

And so they make a pact, the three of them and Jack (who has used his time in prison wisely, and cultivated his anger into a fine rage instead of a child's tantrum); that they will see Jack freed and in Gath with his sister and David Shepherd, who is the best hope for a new king, and that if Silas is brought down, it will not be traced back to them. They are his Triad, the three women he trusts most in the world, and whatever his evils, whatever his failings, they each love him. For his part, Jack is willing to place David on the throne, and will do it with his father's blood if necessary, but he is still Silas's son. He cannot forsake his father completely.

The night Jack is to make his escape to the town of Achish - with the assistance of Gath soldiers completely loyal to Shepherd - the Triad asks for an audience with the King. Rose wears her best gown and crowns herself with the diamonds Silas had given her as a wedding present, to remind Silas of the splendor he once owned. Helen wears her old dress, tattered from use, to remind Silas of her origins, that she was once one of the common people he now silences. Thomasina wears her usual tailored suit, to remind Silas she does not change, and a Gath headscarf, to remind him that she _has_.

Their audience with Silas is the perfect cover, and it works. Silas blusters and booms, and never suspects the betrayal. Jack is smuggled out of the palace and through Gath territory to Horesh, reunited with his sister and Shepherd. And when Silas finds out, though he rants and raves and executes people right and left, he never suspects the three women at his side.

She cannot speak for Rose or Helen, but Thomasina Keilah does not break faith with her king.


End file.
